The present invention relates to information management system, and, in particular a web-based information management system.
Database Management System (“DBMS”) has been a matured and the most powerful tool for managing large amounts of information. In as early as in mid-1960s, there were a number of database systems in commercial use. In 1971, a group known as “Database Task Group” lead by Charles Bachman delivered a standard, which generally became known as the “Codasyl approach”, and a number of commercial products based on this approach became available. In 1968, IBM developed its own database system known as IMS, which was similar in concept to Codasyl, but used a strict hierarchy for its model of data navigation. Both concepts later became known as navigational databases. In 1970, Edgar Codd wrote a number of papers that outlined a new approach to database construction that eventually lead to the groundbreaking relational model of data. Beginning in 1973, INGRES delivered its first test products that were ready for use in 1979. Companies such as IBM and Honeywell developed different database models. In 1968, the University of Michigan began development of the Micro DBMS that remained in production until 1996. IBM created the first version System R in 1974 and then delivered multi-user versions for test in 1978 and 1979, by which time a standardized query language (SQL) had been added. Many of the people involved with INGRES formed their own companies to commercialize their work. In the 1980s, Sybase, Informix, NonStop SQL and even Ingres itself were all sold as offshoots to the original ingress product. In Sweden, Mimer SQL was developed from the mid-70s at Uppsala University. In 1984, this project was consolidated into an independent enterprise. In the early 1980s, Mimer in C introduced transaction handling for high robustness in applications, an idea that was subsequently implemented on most other database. The rise in object oriented programming technologies in the 1980s has affected how data in databases was handled. This allows for relationships between data to be relation to objects and their attributes and not to individual fields. Another big changes in the 1980s were increasing reliability and access speeds. In 1989, two professors from the University of Wisconsin at Madison published an article at an ACM associated conference outlining their concept of increasing database performance. This eventually leads to the practice of indexing.
After more than half a century of development, database technologies have become so complex that it is beyond the reach of ordinary users. It is noted there was a need for automated configuration and management. The development of numerous database options has created flexibility in database management. Despite the efforts by the experts from the whole world, database technology is still considered as an art for server computers and mainframe computers.
Many problems that severely limit database application on the Internet have not been solved. Few efforts have been directed to building the bridge between powerful database applications and web application. Database applications are only used for large enterprise business, and the deployment of database for online use is expensive and requires a long development cycle.
Web interfaces between a database application and web users are generally realized by static programming. By using such a method, a server program using a database application must be designed specifically for each application. No publication teaches how to extend a database application to the browser in a quick and easy way so that ordinary users can run and use the database from a client computer. Another problem is often the cases that those who manage projects do not have access to the server. Thus, ordinary users cannot use the conventional database.
There is a need for a cheep and relatively simple technology, which allows the users to run and use database application from web pages rather than from a server terminal. For example, there may be situations where a large number of the people work on a project from client terminals at various locations for a short period of time. Each of the projects is unique in table number, field definitions and other attributes. Therefore, it is neither possible to develop a perfect web interface for a database system, nor economically feasible due to the nature of one-time use. Assuming the task is to investigation of the organized crime by multiple agencies in several cities and states. The project might require dozens of investigators to interview thousands of witnesses at various cites and collect information from all kinds of sources. Frequently, a vast amount of collected information might be ultimately useless, and the success of the investigation may depend upon the ability to identify and connect only a few pieces of critical information. It is even possible that one piece of the information acquired by Investigator A in New York may be relevant to a piece of information that Investigator Z encountered in Los Angeles. Yet, two pieces of information may lack direct and obvious connection. Under the traditional investigation model, it is highly unlikely to pull out the two pieces of isolated information together due to lack of direct connection. Thus, a web-based system for collecting, storing and distributing massive amount of information at the lowest costs may provide the best tool for finding such a connection.
Another example is management of information for discovery in a large suit. In the last decade, document reviewers received a binder containing review instructions on the first day of review. With information expansion, the binders have become larger and larger. The background information may have tens of pages, the list of key players might be hundreds of pages long, and there might be hundreds pages of relevant transactions. For a global company, any topic might require hundreds of pages of outlines. The investigators might have to use two, five or more large binders for tracking case information. When the task is to answer specific questions based upon the results of investigation, the investigator has to search the massive binders.
The old binder method is no longer workable in practice for many other reasons. All binders will become obsolete in a few days due to the discovery of new information and the changes in response to unavoidable changes. All reviewers or investigators have to learn the same critical facts, terms, or transactions, and they cannot share the work product of others. When the entire review team is changed, the knowledge and experience of the team will disappear, and thus the lead investigator might know little about review history, relevant facts, hot transactions, important events, and critical documents. They never have a second chance to get the first hand information, nor do they have the time to read the mountains of documents. When a reviewer runs into an unfamiliar term, a technology, a transaction, an event, a product, or a person of interest, the reviewer may try to scan through the volumes of binders, ask a colleague about it, or just make the best guess. None of methods is productive and workable. Unfamiliar substance is the biggest time-killer and the number one factor responsible for poor performance and disastrous outcome. Cooperate documents contain difficult technologies, uncommon acronyms, foreign language terms, unfamiliar jargon, and implied assumptions in high frequency, and it is beyond the point for any intelligent person to make a reasonable call. A bad call missing the most favorable evidence or inadvertently failure to keep a privileged smoking-gun document may ruin the client's case.
For the forgoing reasons, there might be a need for a new technology to extend the database application to web browser without additional costs and development cycle; there might be a need for a system that is able to collect, search and distribute a massive amount of information to a plurality of the users online; there might be a need for a database system that can be accessed from client terminal and configured at the client terminal; and there might be a need for a database system that can be reconfigured within a project life cycle and between project life cycles. A web-based information system disclosed in the present invention may be useful in clinic trails, census data analysis, research and development, a variety of surveys, business operations, personal information management, and internal investigations.